Henbit dead-nettle
Lamium amplexicaule
Family · Lamiaceae · Harmless
The small dead-nettle with long purplish pink flowers that turns up in gardens and beds at the end of winter, often before anything else. The upper leaves clasp the stem with no stalk at all, which is what names it.
Town and roadside · Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground
Also known ashenbit, greater henbit
How to tell it
The upper leaves are stalkless and clasp the stem in a disc, which separates this species from all other dead-nettles. Purplish pink flowers with a very long thin tube. A four-angled stem, often prostrate at the base.
What it is confused with
Spotted dead-nettle
Lamium maculatum
The upper leaves: stalked and separate on spotted dead-nettle, stalkless and clasping here. Both edible.
What it is for
Young leaves eaten cooked, like other dead-nettles, and the flowers are sucked for nectar. It is among the first plants to feed bees in February.
Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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